tips for Bonaire newbies traveling with Bonaire veterans?

[gypsyjim]

We also usually bring a few small baggies of our favorite cooking spices with us, to avoid having to buy far more than we will ever use during our short visit.

Things like @ a dozen coffee filters take up no room, and add no weight, and avoid having to buy a large package and leaving 99% of it behind at the end of the week.

Just bring a few T shirts, and 2 swim suits. Wash things out and hang them to dry. Things dry very quickly on Bonaire, and there is no reason to bring the entire closet full of clothes for a week of relaxed shore diving.

 

[gbf]

Go to -mart and buy a soft side cooler. Good for keeping post-dive libations and lunch cold. Weighs nearly nothing and packs small. Your frozen water bottles can be the ice.

In fact, I take a second, smaller one, about a six-pack size. Known as the "magic purse" - put your hand in and a beer comes out.

We we leave it fin the back seat and it has never gone missing.

 

[drrich2]

To reinforce what some others have suggested.

1.) A long sleeve rash guard or some type of shirt that drains/dries quickly; a buddy got me a Champion brand runners shirt. I wear this to cut down sun exposure. Bonaire is a lot closer to the equator than most of us are used to, and can burn you fast and bad.

2.) A bottle of swimmer's ear remedy used prophylactically is a fine idea. I don't count drops; I shoot some in there when I get back to the hotel room.

3.) A pack of spare o-rings is your friend. So is a scuba tool, for when you're at the dive site and realize a hose to your regulator 1st stage got loose.

4.) Sea water is living water. If you want to use the same pair of swim trunks & shirt for a couple of days 'cough-cough-all week-cough-cough,' When you hit the room for lunch and do a quick shower off, and in the evening, take them off and rinse them thoroughly in the shower. The sea water they're wet with has microbes that die when they dry, and rotting tiny bodies eventually stink.

5.) Bonaire does not have Walmart open 24/7. Bring your own little med. kit. Triple Antibiotic ointment for scrapes (which you will have). Ibuprofen. I use 24 hour extended release Sedafed to aid clearing - not pushing it, just saying I do. I discovered the active ingredient in Peptobismol can be found in tablets of a generic brand. I also pack Claritin, Ibuprofen and Imodium (generics, of course). Just in case.

Richard.

 

[djtimmy77]

I find the salt, heat and humidity tends to get me a little chafey in sensitive areas so like to bring some baby powder or other talc to help with that.

This reminds me, my first trip I wore my hard soled boots by themselves, and got tons of blisters. Fortunately I had brought a bunch of bandaids and moleskin. Following that trip I started wearing neoprene socks, and since then, including additional dive trips to Bonaire....no more blisters.

 

[Kharon]

Get a 2 quart/liter bottle of something, drink it & when empty almost fill it with water. Put it (uncapped) into the freezer overnight. Bring it along on the next days dives and you will have Ice water most of the day.

You experienced guys probably know this but you might mention it to the newbies. A trick I learned on Bonaire (after flubbing around on severtal shore entries). Watch the waves and count. Usually there will be a pattern of increasing wave height with several much smaller waves following the largest. Once you figure out the pattern you wait for the largest and then enter as it's receeding. Quickly go out far enough to float (chest high) and put your fins on.

 

[gypsyjim]

For shore entries, do not linger any longer in the critical wave area than you need to. Eventually one bigger wave WILL find you if you hang out for long enough!

On the same note, keep your mask on, either your face or around your neck for the exit. More than one mask has been lost on the exit at Bonaire, from being carried in the hands, or (horrors! on the forehead)

It has been said before, but wear hard sole dive boots, and appropriate fins. If you insist on closed foot fins, figure out a way to wear your sandals for the entries and exits, and find a way to secure those sandals on your harness or bc. Bare feet are NOT good for those exits and entries!

 

[Doctorfish]

Dive the house reef.

The house reefs at the dive resorts in general are good sites with easy entries and access to tanks etc.

Diving the house reef in the daytime will make for easy navigation when you night dive at the same place.

Go night diving early in your trip because after that experience, you will probably want to go every other night as well.

I know you were not asking specifically about restaurants but go to BobbeJans
Open Friday-Sunday. Very good Ribs, BBQ Chicken, Satays, Gado Gado and fries at reasonable price. My favorite place in Bonaire.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Okay, guys, thanks. All but two of us in the group have dived Bonaire numerous times. The majority of us in our group know the restaurants well. We know what to bring. We know the diving. We know the tricks of cooking in a rental unit and bring things like coffee filters and spices. I was just asking if anyone could think of anything that the two people in our group of seven who have NOT been to Bonaire before might want to know before we leave on the trip, so they can plan accordingly. They know the ins and outs of foreign travel and dive travel, just not specifically Bonaire, and also they are not familiar with shore diving, especially as it's done in Bonaire with the rental trucks.

Not sure it's relevant, but this is the first time any of us has stayed at Hamlet Oasis. We usually stay at the Belmar or a private house. So we'll be using the on-site branch of Dive Friends Bonaire. I don't think any of us has dived the house reef, "The Cliff," before. (And yes, I have a copy of Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy.)

 

[morecowbells]

1) After some painful middle of the night toe stub mishaps, I pack a night light and keep it in the bathroom or hallway to make navigation easier.

2) I pack a piece of Fels-Naptha detergent soap and use it on my swimsuits. It does a decent job of keeping them clean and odor free.

3) I pack a travel sized bottle of baby shampoo. Sally Beauty Supply carries travel sized spray bottles. Just a small amount of the shampoo mixed with tap water beats any commercial defogger out there.

 

[Lorenzoid]

<sigh>

Okay, nevermind. Forget I asked the question.